Talk:Avatar Trait
Intresting stuff It's not quite so clear cut as a direct translation to the Entity classes... but that's also not all that far off for 'rough' purposes. 4 wouldn't immediately jump from Class 3 to X (and would you want to be the avatar that hosted a class X entity?) though. Just off the top of my head: AV 1 - an individual spirit... the spirit of the Oak Tree on the west hill of our farm, the spirit of your pet basset hound, etc. AV 2 - the spirit of a 'class of creature or entity'... Bear, Fire Elementals, Wind AV 3 - a greater class or an archetype/totem... Thunderbird, Coyote, Raven, Fallen deities, extra-planar entities, etc. AV 4 - active deities, 'forces' (ie... Champion, Astarte, Fred, etc), higher totems/archetypes like Grandfather Sky, etc. AV 5+ - Gaea, active and highly worshipped deities, multi-planar entities, stuff that is really powerful enough that it doesn't need a host... and probably shouldn't be trapped inside someone for any reason anyway, even willingly. Source Channelers Went searching to see what I could find on channelers in canon or canon authors in the forums; there isn't much. Search term was channeler. Tennyo 5: Dangerous Days “What’s this ‘channeler’ bit? I don’t remember hearing about that yet.” “Oh. You might not have unless you’re training to be a shaman. It’s kind of necessary for a shaman to have because it’s the ability to channel power of the Spirits and Elements.” “But you’re not an avatar?” “No. Avatars combine with Spirits, Elements, and the like to do what they do. Channelers simply channel the power through themselves. We actually have to be more careful because it’s a lot easier to draw too much power and burn yourself to a crisp as it goes through you. A big part of training for a channeler is to learn your limits before you kill yourself. We use a lot of ceremonies and the like to limit ourselves and the powers we draw on.” “Sounds powerful.” “It might be, but you have to remember that we are limited by the amount of power we can draw on that won’t kill or cripple us. There’s stories and rumors of a kind of channeler called an ‘Omni Channeler’ who can do just about anything cause they can draw on all the powers around them at once. Problem with that kind is the burn up immediately because of it. It’s said that it was the use of such channelers that allowed some groups to call in the Elder Ones. They’d find an Omni Channeler who hadn’t been triggered yet and put them into a Ceremony that would use that burst of power to do what they wanted done, even break open dimensional barriers.” Sara 2.3 Insanity Prerequisite Part 3 “Some of you may be Channelers, in which case you have a sweet deal, bartering and trading for temporary powers without binding yourselves to the spirit.” Msg 16532 Channelers: Often considered a sub-class of mage, a topic argued VERY hotly, channelers tap not the natural world, Ley Lines, Currents or rituals for their power. Instead they must bargain, cajole, steal and focus power directly from spirits. Mutants often flat-out violate the classic rules guiding "normal" wizards, which leads many to believe that a channeler is very likely to be something else entirely, and that Shamanistics around the world are being done a disservice by classifying and teaching them as though their pacts and bargains with the creatures of the Astral Planes were nothing more than another way of casting classical spells. Msg 70042 There's no such animal as an 8 rating... for that matter, this doesn't look like anything more than a serial AV-2. There's no Shifting involved in the traditional sense of shifting... the character is simply taking on aspects of the spirit they are hosting (including some physical GSD in addition to whatever powers they gain from the bond). Of course, normally a spirit bonds with the Avatar and stays there (until death or catastrophic event separates them). So we put in the unusual 'serial' bit... that suggests that its an unusual (and temporary) bond. Channeler might also provide a way to explain this as a mutant power. Msg 71593 The one question I have is about your listed weakness. Avatar 1 is not, by itself, a 'weak' avatar... and wouldn't make the mutant susceptible to control by its host/possession. By nature, I'm not entirely sure an Avatar 'can' be possessed in the traditional fashion (as no matter what spirit ended up bonding to them, it would be a typical Avatar integration... and that spirit would then protect them from others). So if the Avatar rating is only being used as the explanation for this weakness.... I'd recommend dropping the AV rating and just indicating a weakness in spirit (and thus susceptibility to possession) in her weaknesses (ie, its not a power that's ranked, its just there). If the AV rating is for something else... then I'd rethink the susceptibility to possession bit. Just keep in mind that spirits possess normal people... especially in the Whateley universe (relative to our own, where its fairly rare). Some people are just open to it. If you 'really' want it to be a mutant trait, I'd recommend an ESP-1 (medium/channeler). THAT is seriously susceptible to possession. Analysis: Dangerous Days Channeler: Draws upon powers of Spirits and Elements. Has to be careful not to draw more power than they can handle, else they burn up. Draws upon a specific type spirit or element at a time; omni-channelers can draw upon all types at the same time, inevitably burn-up first time because they draw too much. No discussion of bargaining with spirits, specific powers, seems to treat it as channeling energy. IP3, msg 16532: Bargains with spirits for temporary access to powers. Danger of bargaining poorly? Msg 70042: Temporary bonds with spirits, no discussion of bargaining. Msg 71593: Channeler as ESP trait, low level has danger of spirit taking control/possession. None of these really seem to tie in with what's in the wiki. As an Avatar Trait subsection I'd presume something which actually deals with individual spirits' powers, which doesn't match the Dangerous Days version; doesn't really feel like an Avatar Trait. IP3, msg 16532 & 70042 indicate access to the powers of specific spirits, with two of them involving bargaining with the spirit for said access; temporary hosting would seem Avatar Traitish. 71593 doesn't treat it as an Avatar Trait, but does seem to deal with one spirit at a time. Dunno what to do with all this, except I don't see where the wiki definition is coming from.JohnBobMead 22:29, November 2, 2010 (UTC) Yeah, I agree it's murky. I'll have a go at fixing the Wiki definition to correspond more or less with what's in Dangerous Days, and then see how it goes from there. XaltatunOfAcheron 01:16, November 3, 2010 (UTC)